Karim Aïnouz’s Futuro Beach

NewFest, New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival, unveiled details for its 26th edition in July. This year, 16 narrative and five documentaries will screen at the festival, which is a partnership between L.A.'s Outfest and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. NewFest showcases work from veteran filmmakers as well as newcomers and supports the mission to celebrate “diverse film communities and voices from around the world.”

The New York premiere of Karim Aïnouz’s Futuro Beach will kick off NewFest 2014. The Berlin International Film Festival debut is an emotionally resonant tale about three Brazilian men struggling across oceans of love, loss, and heartache. Bruce LaBruce's latest, Gerontophiliaalso a New York premiere, will close the festival. The Canadian romantic comedy centers on Lake, a teen with an old soul who discovers he has an odd fixation on the elderly. After taking a job as an orderly at a nursing home, he forms a bond with Mr. Peabody, whose dream is to see the ocean one last time.

Other NewFest highlights include Stephan Haupt’s The Circle, winner of the Teddy Award at the 2014 Berlinale; Hong Khaou’s Lilting, a Sundance 2014 selection starring Ben Whishaw; Patrik-Ian Polk’s Blackbird, starring Mo’Nique and Isaiah Washington; Carter Smith’s Jamie Marks Is Dead, a Sundance 2014 selection starring Cameron Monaghan, Judy Greer, and Liv Tyler; Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays, also from Sundance 2014 and Berlinale 2014; and the world premiere of Kate Kunath’s We Came to Sweat: The Legend of Starlite, a timely documentary about Brooklyn’s oldest gay bar.

“This marks the fourth year of having NewFest at the Film Society and we couldn’t be happier to continue our collaboration with Outfest. LGBT films and filmmakers are a vital part of cinema worldwide, and we are thrilled to offer this showcase on our screens each year,” said Lesli Klainberg, Film Society of Lincoln Center's Executive Director. Added Outfest Director of Programming: “In the year following spectacular LGBT civil rights advances across the country, the dynamic and fresh slate of 2014 NewFest films decisively demonstrates that artists and storytellers lead the charge in creating social change.”

NewFest 2014 takes place July 24-29. Screenings are at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater unless otherwise noted.


Bruce LaBruce's Gerontophilia

[Tickets for NewFest will go on sale Thursday, July 10. A pre-sale to members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and NewFest for these screenings begins on Tuesday, July 1. Single screening tickets are $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); $8 for Film Society and NewFest members. Special prices will apply for the Opening and Closing night screenings and parties. Visit Filmlinc.com for details and complete festival information.]

NewFest films, descriptions and schedule follow:

Futuro Beach, Opening Night
Karim Aïnouz, Brazil/Germany, 2013, DCP, 106m
German and Portuguese with English subtitles
When Brazilian lifeguard Donato fails to save a swimmer from drowning, he seeks out the victim’s friend Konrad, a handsome German biker. The two men begin a passionate affair, and Donato soon decides to follow Konrad to Berlin. Years later, their seemingly peaceful life is threatened by a visitor from Donato’s past. Director Karim Aïnouz (Madame Satã) delivers a visually stunning, emotionally resonant tale about three men struggling across oceans of love, loss, and heartache. A Strand Releasing release.
July 24, 7:00pm (preceded by Achievement Award presentation)

Gerontophilia Closing Night, NY Premiere
Bruce LaBruce, Canada, 2013, DCP, 81m
Lake refuses to feel shame about his unquenchable appetite for older men. The handsome teen defiantly signs up as an orderly at a local nursing home and quickly falls for Mr. Peabody, a charming, flirtatious soul with one last wish. Forget everything you know about filmmaker Bruce LaBruce: in what is easily his most romantic work to date, he dares us to look beyond fetish to embrace the beauty of all stages of life.
July 29, 7:00pm (Q&A with Bruce LaBruce)

Age of Consent, NY Premiere
Todd Verow & Charles Lum, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 88m
The history of the HOIST, London’s first and only gay sex fetish bar, follows the cultural evolution of gay life and sex in modern London through AIDS, gentrification, and the ongoing political struggle to decriminalize homosexual activity in the UK.
July 26, 11:30pm

Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy
Andrea James, USA, 2013, Blu-ray, 78m
In his hilarious new performance film, 2014 Outfest Fusion Achievement Award Winner and gifted comedian Alec Mapa (Switched at Birth)—accompanied by his family—takes his audience on a roller-coaster ride through the challenges and occasional triumphs of becoming a daddy. You’ll laugh and even cry as “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart” mixes life stories with his signature brand of sass. Contains adult language and catastrophic waffles.
July 27, 5:00pm (Q&A with Andrea James)

Blackbird, NY Premiere
Patrik-Ian Polk, USA, 2013, 102m
A high-school senior named Randy (newcomer Julian Walker) and his band of queer friends fight for a life outside the constrictions of their small Southern Baptist town. Blackbird’s a powerful film, co-starring Academy Award winner Mo’Nique (Precious) and Isaiah Washington (Blue Caprice) as Randy’s conflicted parents, in which friends—black, white, straight, gay, and all things in between—discover firsthand both the rewards and consequences of growing up as outsiders.
July 25, 9:30pm (Q&A with Patrik-Ian Polk)

Boys, NY Premiere
Mischa Kamp, The Netherlands, 2014, DCP, 78m
Dutch with English subtitles
After making it onto the track team, 15-year-old Sieger instantly grows close to fellow runner Marc. Sieger, dealing with family troubles, and Marc, outgoing and engaging, fall in love over the course of a summer spent running, swimming, and stealing kisses in the forest. But Sieger must weigh how his widowed father feels against the joy and freedom he finds in Marc’s arms in this adorable romance.
July 24, 10:00pm


Mischa Kamp's Boys

The Circle, NY Premiere
Stefan Haupt, Switzerland, 2014, DCP, 101m
German with English subtitles
A Teddy Award winner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, The Circle captures an extraordinary romance set against the backdrop of Switzerland’s thriving post-WWII underground gay movement. Director Stefan Haupt has fashioned a gorgeous hybrid of a film, uncovering a vibrant love story between a singer and schoolteacher who bravely defied the constraining laws of their era.
July 26, 10:30am

Cupcakes
Eytan Fox, 2013, Israel, DCP, 90m
Hebrew with English subtitles
During their annual get-together to watch the kitschy Universong competition, one of a sextet of friends is nursing a broken heart. The other five spontaneously compose and perform a song to cheer her up, which leads to a viral video that transforms these six nonprofessionals into Universong competitors. As colorful and infectious as a pop song, the latest from Eytan Fox (Yossi) is a delirious sugar rush of a comedy.
*July 28, 7:00pm (Screening at the JCC, 344 Amsterdam Avenue)

Dual, NY Premiere
Nejc Gazvoda, Slovenia/Croatia/Denmark, 2013, DCP, 102m
English, Slovenian, and Danish with English subtitles
Iben, a free-spirited Danish woman, gets stuck in Slovenia overnight when her connecting flight gets canceled. She asks Tina, a young lesbian minivan driver, to show her around Ljubljana. Both women are at a crossroads: Tina has a big interview for a bank job in the morning, and Iben is harboring a dark secret. Romantic feelings slowly build between them, and they hatch a plan to run away together.
July 27, 12:00pm

52 Tuesdays, NY Premiere
Sophie Hyde, Australia, 2013, DCP, 114m
Sixteen-year-old Billie (played by Australian rising star Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is blindsided by the news that her mother is planning to transition from female to male and that, during this time, Billie will live at her father’s house. Billie and her mother, now called James, agree to meet every Tuesday during their year apart. As James undergoes changes and becomes less emotionally available, Billie covertly explores her own identity and sexuality with two older schoolmates, testing the limits of her own power, desire, and independence. A Kino Lorber Release.
July 24, 4:00pm


Sophie Hyde's
52 Tuesdays

The Foxy Merkins
Madeleine Olnek, USA, 2013, DCP, 81m
Margaret is a down-on-her-luck lesbian hooker-in-training. She meets Jo, a beautiful, self-assured grifter who’s a pro at picking up women, even though she considers herself a card-carrying hetero. The duo hits the streets, encountering bargain-hunting housewives, double-dealing conservatives, husky-voiced seductresses, shopaholic swingers, as well as a mumbling erotic-accessory salesman (Alex Karpovsky of Girls). Writer-director Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same) melds her singular brand of comedy with the buddy-film genre to pay homage to and riff on iconic male-hustler films.
July 25, 7:00pm (Q&A with Madeleine Olnek)

I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole, NY Premiere
Jim Tushinski, USA, 2013, 90m
Wakefield Poole was a respected Broadway choreographer and ballet star until he rocked the mainstream world by becoming a groundbreaking hardcore gay filmmaker during the tumultuous 1970s. At the time, anyone making what the government considered pornography was at risk of prosecution. Poole challenged the system with his iconic Boys in the Sand, becoming famous for the defiant artistry he instilled in dozens of sexually explicit works, whose impact forever changed adult film.
*July 28, 9:00pm (Screening at the JCC, 344 Amsterdam Avenue)

I Am Happiness on Earth, NY Premiere
Julián Hernández, Mexico, 2013, 115m
Spanish with English subtitles
Julián Hernández, one of Mexico’s premier queer filmmakers (Raging Sun, Raging Sky), returns with this tale of a film director struggling with the line between his sexually charged reality and equally arousing cinematic creations. Will Emiliano be able to sustain his relationship, or will his lust for beauty and meaning lead him elsewhere? Furious couplings between gorgeous men include an exhilaratingly explicit play-within-a-play. Hernández’s boldly poetic romance compares with such films as Fellini’s 8 1/2, Godard’s Contempt, and others exploring the connections between love, sex, creativity, and filmmaking.
July 26, 9:00pm

Jamie Marks Is Dead, NY Premiere
Carter Smith, USA, 2014, DCP, 100m
When the ghost of bullied teenager Jamie Marks (Noah Silver) appears to Adam (Cameron Monaghan), the straitlaced track star becomes caught between two worlds. Despite a budding romance with Gracie (Morgan Saylor), who found Jamie’s body, Adam is fascinated by the sexy spirit, who leads him into a ghostly underworld. Also featuring Judy Greer and Liv Tyler, this supernatural-horror love story—a Sundance gem—delivers a poetic tale of sexuality and the tough choices it creates.
July 28, 9:30pm (Q&A with Carter Smith)

Lilting, NY Premiere
Hong Khaou, UK, 2013, DCP, 86m
English and Mandarin with English subtitles
The sudden death of Kai, a young London man, leaves his Chinese Cambodian mother Junn (Pei-pei Cheng) and his boyfriend Richard (Ben Whishaw) profoundly grieving. Feeling a strong sense of responsibility for Kai’s only family member, Richard reaches out to her. Though Junn speaks little English, her dislike of Richard is plain, and she responds with stony resistance. Since they share no common language, Richard hires a translator to facilitate communication, and the two improbable relatives attempt to reach across a chasm of misunderstanding through their memories of Kai. Writer-director Hong Khaou’s moving and intimate debut dances between the real and imaginary to express the unspeakable loss that both characters experience. Boasting delicate performances by both Whishaw and Cheng, this Sundance award-winner is a perceptive meditation on the connection between two human souls, revealing that what separates us can also bind us together. A Strand Releasing release.
July 27, 7:30pm

Lyle, NY Premiere
Stewart Thorndike, USA, 2014, DCP, 65m
Lyle, Stewart Thorndike’s sinister ode to Rosemary’s Baby, finds the perfect mom-to-be in Gaby Hoffmann. Her electrifying performance as Leah, a pregnant lesbian confronted by an unspeakable evil, brings out a primal terror that’s difficult to shake. With dark humor and razor-sharp camerawork, Thorndike takes audiences into a growing nightmare as Leah begins to question the motives of her partner, friends, and neighbors.
July 28, 7:00pm (Q&A with Stewart Thorndike)

The Third One, NY Premiere
Rodrigo Guerrero, Argentina, 2013, DCP, 70m
Spanish with English subtitles
An attractive older couple stumbles upon a flirtatious young man in a chat room and, after teasing some skin, convinces him to come over to their apartment for dinner. With fumbling honesty and no shortage of sexiness, The Third One celebrates the awkwardness and euphoria of a one-night stand gone right, culminating in an explicit, 10-minute threesome that’s as erotic as it is playful.
July 29, 9:30pm (Q&A with Rodrigo Guerrero)

Tiger Orange, NY Premiere
Wade Gasque, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 76m
Two estranged gay brothers attempt to make amends in Wade Gasque’s charming small-town drama. Set against the sun-kissed fields of Central California, and anchored by strong performances from Mark Strano and porn-star-turned-leading-man Frankie Valenti (aka Johnny Hazzard), Tiger Orange pits two diametric opposites against each other—the closeted introvert versus the out-and-proud hunk. The result is a blunt, playful meditation on queer sibling rivalry and the childhood bonds that force us together.
July 26, 6:30pm (Q&A with Wade Gasque)


Wade Gasque's
Tiger Orange

The Way He Looks, NY Premiere
Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil, 2014, DCP, 96m
Portuguese with English subtitles
Set to the bouncy beats of Belle and Sebastian, this euphoric, sun-kissed coming-of-age fable—a sensation at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, where it won a Teddy Award and FIPRESCI prize—dances entirely to its own tune. Stuck fending off bullies and over-protective parents, Leonardo spends his days allowing his best friend Giovana to drag him around town. Being blind has always been an inconvenience for Leonardo, but his angsty adolescence gets a lift when the handsome and smooth-talking Gabriel turns down numerous offers from ogling girls to hang with Leonardo after school. The longer they spend together, the more apparent their shared attraction becomes—not just to them but to a spurned Giovana as well. As social pressure mounts on both to fit within their confined social boxes, the two must decide whether to ignore their feelings or to throw caution to the wind and admit that they might actually be falling in love. A Strand Releasing release.
July 29, 4:30pm (Q&A with Daniel Ribeiro)
 
We Came to Sweat: The Legend of Starlite, World Premiere
Kate Kunath, USA, 2014, DCP, 70m
When Brooklyn’s oldest black gay bar, the Starlite Lounge, is faced with eviction, the community decides to fight back. Will they be able to save this pre-Stonewall safe haven? Or is gentrification unstoppable? Kate Kunath’s timely portrait of a community banding together to preserve their culture and history is a stirring must-see.
July 25, 4:30pm (Q&A with Kate Kunath)

What It Was, NY Premiere
Daniel Armando, USA, 2013, 85m
In Daniel Armando’s multilayered film, Adina, a successful Latina actress, returns to New York in the aftermath of her sister’s death and her marriage’s collapse. Unable to face her mother, she finds herself in a fog, drifting through the days. Memories dissolve into the present as she tumbles through a series of intense, complex connections with a sexy, butch body artist, a young college student, and a former girlfriend. With confident directing, assured performances, and intuitive editing and cinematography, What It Was masterfully conveys the emotional textures of Adina’s waking dream of a life.
July 26, 4:00pm (Q&A with Daniel Armando)
 
Shorts Programs
 
“Hustle (With My Muscle)”
Hustle: to force (someone) to move hurriedly or unceremoniously in a specified direction. This shorts program examines the formal properties of the hustle. From transgender icon Bambi Lake to famed Parisian cat burglar Irma Vep (by way of Zackary Drucker), sweaty boys in jockstraps and grungy hipsters playing phallic drinking games to good ol’ Lily Tomlin, “Hustle (With My Muscle)” eyes life in the fast, cheap, and out-of-control lane.
July 27, 9:30pm
 
James: Portrait Series
Jonesy, USA, 2013, 2m
A brief and intimate two-channel portrait study in grainy video.
 
Dirty Boots
Adam Baran, USA, 2014, 6m
A cheat sheet of seminal queer porn reference points, Baran’s first foray into music videos—for Holopaw’s “Dirty Boots (He Don’t)”—is a musky concoction, an electric and eclectic fuck fest.
 
Sticks & Stones
Silas Howard, USA, 2013, 9m
A portrait of Bambi Lake, a legendary and notorious San Francisco transgender performer, who takes us on a stroll down Polk Street, sharing anecdotes about her song “Golden Age of Hustlers,” written about her time as a street hustler in the mid ’70s.
 
Deep
Vanessa Roveto, USA, 2014, 6m
Last year’s NewFest audience favorite Vanessa Roveto returns with another monologue, recounting a new erotic brush with lesbian stardom.


From “Hustle (With My Muscle)”
 
Conversations
Heather Cassils, USA, 2014, 3m
Assembled from archival clips and performance documents, Conversations is an ode to the carefully constructed image of Peter Berlin, phone sex, and cock.
 
Big Bad Straw
Aimee Goguen, USA, 2013, 2m
“I don’t think it will, Aimee. I don’t think our lungs are strong enough.”
 
Irma Vep, the last breath
Michelle Handelman, 2013, 30m
Underworld ringleader and ill-famed cat burglar Irma Vep (played by Zachary Drucker) considers her life’s accomplishments and consequences on a neon-tubed therapist’s couch—strutting, mugging, evading the question…
 
My Most Handsome Monster
Madsen Minax, USA, 2014, 13m
Carnality takes on a whole new meaning in Minax’s excruciating psychodrama that hyperbolizes the S&M contract and its discontents.
 
Interstitial Instagram Greenroom Videos
Jibz Cameron, 2013-14, 10 seconds each
“Fame. I’m gonna live forever.”
 
NewFest Shorts Program 1: From love in the barrio to Pride Day in Naples, from a gay rapper in New Jersey to a German-Bolivian Mennonite, this program of shorts explores the diversity of LGBT lives. July 26, 1:30pm
 
Barrio Boy
Dennis Shinners, USA, 2013, 8m
A Latino barber secretly falls in love with a handsome Irish stranger over the course of a haircut during a hot and sweaty summer afternoon in a macho Brooklyn hood.
 
Code Academy
Nisha Ganatra, USA, 2014, 16m
In the future, girls and boys are separated until the age of 18 and can only interact in virtual spaces. For one awkward teen girl, the virtual world is more liberating than expected.
 
Who Do You Think You Are
Marie Loustalot, France/Germany, 2013, 9m
French with English subtitles
Arnaud, a trans man, is taken aback when his ex-girlfriend doesn’t recognize him.
 
Home from the Gym
Robert Hawk, USA, 2014, 6m
A young man returns from the gym, alone.
 
Luigi and Vincenzo
Giuseppe Bucci, Italy, 2013, 4m
Italian with English subtitles
Long-time clandestine partners Luigi and Vincenzo journey through Pride Day in Naples and are forced to face a harsh reality of their lives.
 
Cakes da Killa
Ja’Tovia Gary, USA, 2014, 13m
Cakes da Killa is a young up-and-coming rapper who also happens to be an out and proud gay man.
 
Be Here Nowish – Episode 2
Alexandra Roxo, USA, 2014, 7m
A girl gets way more than she bargained for when her one-night stand refuses to leave and throws a party.
 
Unicorn
Rodrigo Bellott, Bolivia, 2013, 30m
Spanish with English subtitles
A young German-Bolivian Mennonite risks his life to escape his strict religious community to find love and freedom in the city.
 
 
NewFest Shorts Program 2: The breadth of the LGBT experience is further revealed through the stories of a 92-year-old transgendered WWII vet, a widowed Swedish author, a teenage lesbian in the American South, and more. July 27, 2:30pm
 
Disaster Preparedness
Melissa Finell, USA, 2014, 15m
Hunkered down in their apartment when a hurricane hits, a couple deals with the crossroads of commitment, disaster, and the art of being prepared.
 
A Last Farewell
Casper Andreas, Sweden, 2013, 13m
Swedish with English subtitles
Haunted by visions of his late husband, and in conflict with his daughter who is trying to renew ties between them, an aging author tackles the impossible task of moving on and finding peace in the wake of a devastating loss.
 
Flying Solo: A Transgender Widow Fights Discrimination
Leslie Von Pless, USA, 2013, 8m
At 92, Robina Asti, a WWII veteran and pilot, tells her story of living as a transgender woman since 1976 and her fight to be treated like any other widow.
 
Best
William Oldroyd, UK, 2013, 3m
With a man's wedding just minutes away, he and his best friend confront their future.
 
A One Year Lease
Brian Bolster, USA, 2014, 11m
Told almost entirely through voicemail messages, a couple must endure a yearlong sentence with their overbearing cat-loving landlady.
 
Aban + Khorshid
Darwin Serink, USA, 2013, 15m
Farsi with English subtitles
Inspired by true events, Aban & Khorshid is an intimate portrait of two lovers, glimpsing into the world in which they met, moments before they face the ultimate punishment for being gay.
 
Alone with People
Drew Van Steenbergen, USA, 2014, 29m
A high-school girl from the South seeks the help of a therapist to come out to her family and friends in this hilarious and touching coming-of-age tale.